tag: Suss

Fab tools/manufacturing
Lam Research has accepted Martin Anstice’s resignation as chief executive and a member of the board. Lam has named Tim Archer as president and chief executive effective immediately. Archer, who served as Lam’s president and chief operating officer, has been named to the board. One analyst provided a comment on the situation at Lam. “In our view, Mr. Archer is very... » read more

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is re-emerging amid an explosion of new applications in the market.
Canon, EV Group, Nanonex, Suss and others continue to develop and ship NIL systems for a range of markets. NIL is different than conventional lithography and resembles a stamping process. Initially, a lithographic system forms a pattern on a template based on a pre-defined design. Then, a separa... » read more

The fan-out wafer-level packaging market is heating up. At the high end, for example, several packaging houses are developing new fan-out packages that could reach a new milestone and hit or break the magic 1µm line/space barrier. But the technology presents some challenges, as it may require more expensive process flows and equipment like lithography.
Fig. 1: Redistribution layers. Source: L... » read more

Chipmakers
AMD has entered into a long-term amendment to its wafer supply agreement (WSA) with GlobalFoundries for the period from Jan. 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2020. Today, GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 in Malta, N.Y. is playing a big role in providing leading-edge foundry capacity for AMD's graphics and processor products.
As part of the amended deal, AMD will grant to West Coast Hitech, a subsidia... » read more

For years, China has been a steady growth market for suppliers of semiconductor equipment. Internally, though, the country is comprised of trailing-edge fabs and IC-assembly houses, which means equipment vendors sell relatively mature tools and compete on price.
That’s about to change, however. Today, the IC equipment business is heating up in China as the nation begins to upgrade and pour... » read more

ASML Holding’s first production-worthy scanners for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography are expected to ship this year, but there are still a number of challenges to bring the technology into high-volume manufacturing.
As before, the three main challenges for EUV are the power sources, resists and photomasks. To date, the resists are making progress, while the EUV power sources remain a ... » read more